Part 3 (1/2)

_Isidore, Etyed according to orders, to recover property or drive back the enearians:_ If there is no urgent need, not only in Lent but at all times, men should abstain froent occasion, and it is not Lent, beyond all doubt preparations for wars should be sparingly made in one's own defence or in that of one's country or the laws of one's fathers; lest forsooth this word be said: A man if he has an attack to make, does not carefully take counsel beforehand for his own safety and that of others, nor does he guard against injury to holy religion[9]

This example shows the scholastic method in its earliest form,--the statement of the thesis, followed by the simple citation of authorities, _pro_ and _con_ Later writers added the conclusion which they wished to support, or at least indicated it in the statement of the thesis This, of course, robbed theOther es 58 ff, 121 ff The point to be noted here is that in the ”Yes and No”

Abelard struck out definitely the e part of university instruction How great a part it played can be understood only by an extended study of university history A brief discussion of the subject is given on pages 35-37 The sti students to Paris A those who came to hear him was John of Salisbury

(b) _A Pre-University Scholar: John of Salisbury_

John of Salisbury (c 1120-1180), ”for thirty years the central figure of English learning,” ”beyond dispute the best-read ood exa those who travelled abroad for study in the early days of the revival described above He spent twelve years (1136-1148) at Paris and at Chartres His ”Metalogicus” (completed about 1159) is perhaps the best contemporary account of educational affairs in France in the twelfth century

The book is interesting now , for its advocacy of liberal studies as a preparation for logic, and for its vigorous argu all of the works of Aristotle then known, several of which had only recently becoinally, however, to discredit the educational practices of a certain person--designated by the pseudony a short and showy education, and spreading it abroad through his disciples The description of ”Cornificius” and his school is not necessarily true, but soes are quoted frohly characteristic of the Middle Ages,--and not unknown to-day

They also give point, by contrast, to the education and views of John Salisbury hiins by personal abuse of ”Cornificius”:

The shamelessness of his looks, the rapacity of his hands, the frivolousness of his bearing, the foulness of his hborhood spews out), the obscenity of his lust, the ugliness of his body, the baseness of his life, his spotted reputation, I would lay bare and thrust into the face of the public, did notmindful of my profession, and of the fraternal coence should be given to his person while, nevertheless, indulgence is not given to his sin

Having fairly joined battle by several pages of vituperation, John proceeds to describe his opponent's orously to his viehich have destroyed h the new Cornificius is rees with hih inert and slothful, are eager to seem rather than to be wise

Fore ti For he, too, was equally untaught by teachers, since, without eloquence, and yet verbose, and lacking the fruit of ideas, he continuously throws to the wind the foliage of wordsHe feeds his hearers on fables and trifles, and if what he promises is true, he will make them eloquent without the need of skill, and philosophers by a short cut and without effort In that school of philosophizers at that ti led to , was considered insoluble Also, whether he who bought the whole cloak bought the cowl Decidedly incongruous was the speech in which these words, ”congruous” and ”incongruous argureat noise, with h ”esse” and ”non-esse”A wordy clah to secure the victory, and he who introduced anything frooal of his proposition Therefore they suddenly became expert philosophers, for he who had coer than the tiet their feathers So the fresh teachers froether, having lingered an equal length of tiuive its common name to an ass, or a man, or any of nature's works, was like a criant or crude, and abhorrent to a philosopher Hence this seething pot of speech in which the stupid old inators of the Arts because when he pretends to devote his energies to the useful in the was inin the schools ”scarcely longer than the tiet their feathers,” he spent, as above noted, twelve years in study Instead of devoting hiic and disputation alone, he received an extensive training in the classics and in theology His first teacher at Paris was Abelard

When I was a very young man, I went to study in France, the year after the death of that lion in the cause of justice, Henry [the First], king of England There I sought out that famous teacher and Peripatetic philosopher of Pallet [Abelard], who at that time presided at Mont St Genevieve, and was the subject of admiration to all men At his feet I received the first rudiic], and shewed the utmost avidity to pick up and store away in my mind all that fell froret, Abelard left us, I attended Master Alberic, aassailant of the Nominal Sect Two years I stayed at Mont St Genevieve, under the tuition of Alberic and Master Robert de Melun

Then follows a characterization of these teachers The statena for the further study of logic indicates that that place was e of dialectics as well as for the study of law

One of these teachers was scrupulous even to minutiae, and everywhere found some subject to raise a question; for the smoothest surface presented inequalities to him, and there was no rod so sht be got rid of The other of the tas proe avoided a question that was proposed; but he would choose the contradictory side, or by multiplicity of words would show that a siiven In all questions, therefore, he was subtle and profuse, whilst the other in his ansas perspicuous, brief, and to the point If two such characters could ever have been united in the same person, he would be the best hand at disputation that our times have produced Both of them possessed acute wit, and an indomitable perseverance, and I believe they would have turned out great and distinguished men in Physical Studies, if they had supported thereat base of Literature, and more closely followed the tracks of the ancients, instead of taking such pride in their own discoveries

All this is said with reference to the ti which I attended on thena, and there unlearnt what he had taught: on his return also, he untaught it: whether the change was for the better or the worse, I leave to the judgment of those who heard him before and after

The other of the tas also a proficient in the more exalted Philosophy of Divinity, wherein he obtained a distinguished naot so versed in coeneral, which boys study, and in which hty, that I seemed to ers

There was one thing which I had certainly attained to, naher than it deserved I thoughtscholar, because I was ready in what I had been taught

Evidence external to this narrative shows that he noent to the school at Chartres,--soreat French schools of the period (see p 10) During the first half of the twelfth century it beca of the brothers Theodoric and Bernard Sylvester, who are both uished in particular for its devotion to Grammar, Rhetoric, and classical Latin literature; in this respect it was in y were the prevailing studies

I then, beginning to reflect and to th, attended on the Gra the space of three years; and read ret the way in which my time was then spent After this I became a follower of Richard l'Eveque, a , and whose breast contained ive utterance to; for he had learning rather than eloquence, truthfulness rather than vanity, virtue rather than ostentation With him I reviewed all that I had learned fros, which I now learnt for the first ti to the Quadrivium, in which I had already acquired soain studied Rhetoric, which I had before learnt very superficially with some other studies fro what I read Afterwards I learnt it more fully from Peter Hely[11]

In another chapter, which is here inserted in the narrative, John describes in detail the teaching at Chartres This is one of the most complete accounts which we have of thein a twelfth-century school He begins by a general discussion of the importance of Gra, and reflection Throughout this discussion he refers constantly to Quintilian's ”Institutes of Oratory” The study of Rhetoric and of other Arts prepares one for the proper understanding of Literature: ”The greater the number of Arts hich one is imbued, and the more fully he is imbued with theance of the authors, and the more clearly will he teach them”

As to the study of Literature, care should be used in selecting the best authors Bernard, he reports, ”always said that unnecessary reading should be avoided, and that the writings of illustrious authors were sufficient; since to study whatever all that the reat torture or in idle boasting, and hinders and even overwhelence, which is better left e chosen was classical Latin literature; ”in this reverent dependence upon the ancients, lies the main peculiarity of the school of Chartres,” which under Bernard and his brother ”enjoyed a peculiar distinction, continually growing until it beca the schools of Gaul”[12]